Integrated Time-Resolved Fluorescence and Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy Instrument for Intraoperative Detection of Brain Tumor Margin

Time-resolved fluorescence (TRF) and diffuse reflectance (DR) spectroscopy are two optical biopsy modalities that have been studied in tumor diagnosis. Combination of TRF and DR spectroscopy allows us to obtain more features such as fluorescence intensity, lifetime, and optical properties; thus, potentially improving the tissue diagnostic accuracy. In this paper, an integrated TRF-DR spectroscopy instrument was developed to acquire TRF spectra as well as spatially resolved diffuse reflectance spectra in sequence for intraoperative detection of brain tumor margin. The performance of TRF-DR spectroscopy instrumentation was calibrated and evaluated using endogenous biomolecules, tissue phantoms, and ex vivo brain tumor specimens. The results demonstrated that the TRF-DR system is capable to retrieve the fluorescence and optical properties accurately.